The other guys

It's sort of the same game.

You find yourself in a tavern...

The Tavern

The air was joyous and drunken,the pub was constantly moving, your standard night in Borstead, an average hamlet in the empire that was Neverwinter. Amongst the average rabble there were few that stood out, Rollo the pub owner was directing his wenches as a Tiefling passed out on the floor. Some young man was playing on a sparkling instrument, clearly enchanted somehow, though his clothes and hair was dirty. In the corner, a Dragonborn drank alone, clearly at it for a while as he failed to notice a shade leafing through his pockets. A fair skinned elf sat over the bar and drank silently, sullenly alone. This mood kept up for hours, and as the night went on, so did the notable people, drinks were poured, women were grabbed at, until that is, the screaming started.
It started far away, rumblings like a small earthquake, strange noises from the outside, all music stopped save the young man with the strange instrument. Finally something broke, windows and walls crashed as monsters came through and started to attack. Monsters of the Hobgoblin variety.
The Dragonborn saw it coming, but kept nursing his drink as one of the monsters stabbed a bar patron, two of the others tried to stab the drunken Tiefling, who, amazingly back flipped out of the way and on….to his back again. The bard was attacked but parried with his instrument, and the elf dodged an attack by one of their leaders, before returning the favor and brutalizing the creature. The Dragonborn stood up, wiped his chin scales, and pulled out his axe, charging the creatures with a belching roar. The Tiefling glared at one of his attackers before scampering away, the hobgoblins eyes seeming to melt into a bloody mass as he dropped to the floor dead. The musician strummed his instrument and launched a hobgoblin into the wall. By this point the Dragonborn had managed to cleave into one of the monsters, killing it with a mighty blow. And the Elf took advantage of the musicians blast and stabbed the final monster behind the counter. Meanwhile the shade hid.

Behind a stool.

…

After this the group acquainted themselves, congratulating each other on the well fought battle. An armored guard rushed in and shouted for help, that the creatures were making a push against the bridge, the musician jumped in with some remark of " Radical " and eventually the rest of the group followed him, being led out by the Tiefling and the Elf, a reluctant DragonBorn and Shade in tow. As the guard lined them up they started hearing explosions and rumbling drawing towards them. As it drew closer the guard looked terrified, and suddenly a troll rounded the corner pulling a cart as two goblin-like creatures tossed large barrels of explosives out the sides.

Seemingly the only sane one, the guard ran inside, and the musician, ValHallen as he introduced himself, powerslid with his wondrous “axe”, as he referred to his instrument, shot a beam of energy into the troll who topped over backwards causing the cart to halt, hurling the goblins out and into the street, lying face first. Seizing the opportunity the Eldarin Johan Pisces jumped up and stabbed the monstrous troll in the stomach, it roared and tried to swing one of it’s casks of explosive at him, but the Eldarin disappeared and the creature committed suicide in a fiery flash. Vrik the Dragonborn charged one of the vulnerable hobgoblins and engaged him with his own axe. Sherlock Sholmes glared at the other, and the shade did nothing of importance.

ValHallen clambered up the trolls ashen corpse and rolled one of the casks down onto one of the remaining hobgoblins, Vrik saw it coming but failed to escape the blast as the creature was vaporized, and Vrik sent flying. The party quickly dealt with the remaining creature, and the fight was done.

Johan and Valhallen left for the bridge, hoping to help watch for follow up attacks, and Vrik engaged a passing group of guardsmen. The confrontation roped in Sherlock and the shade, and culminated in Vrik giving the group of heavily armed men a particularly vulgar gesture. A fight broke out and Sherklock quickly found himself bleeding out, Vrik not far behind him. Hearing sounds of battle, and seeing large numbers of guards depart to “settle some scores” the pair broke out into a sprint, knowing deep down that their new friends had done something incredibly stupid.

They arrived as Vrik was still trying to swear at his would be killers, finding it harder to do as he spit out chipped teeth. Valhallen quickly made something up and began shouting about an attack on the bridge. The guards ran to defend the town and Valhallen brought the group to a tavern he frequented. Johan helped Vrik as Valhallen half dragged Sherlock to the doors. The shade was doing something.

The tavern owner was cleaning his shop, and glared at the group as they walked in. Valhallen set to work.

" Friend! I am in need of some rooms for the night, we have fought many creatures and are weary. "

" And what would you be doing with tha’ thar devil spawn? "

Valhallen made a face and gathered his cunning

" He is a spy we found, we plan to…. repay him for his efforts, and would be grateful if the guards didn’t find out. "

The tavern owner enthusiastically agreed and the group found themselves with discounted rooms for the night.

In the morning they were summoned to the chambers of Counciler Trayas, and told of a secret. In short, the enemy had captured some of the townsfolk, including the councilors daughter. Offered payment for their services, in ValHallens case, a date with Trayas’ daughter, the group agreed to rescue them, and the councilor told them of his secret, they captured a goblin, and were holding it below.

After a quick chat, Valhallen deduced they’d need him to lead the adventurers to the lair of the hobgoblins, and Johan mannaged to convince the councilor to release him, promising they’d return him when they were done.